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Overview
This study considers the operations of slavery and of abolition propaganda on the thought and literature of England from the late-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries. Incorporating materials ranging from canonical literatures to the lowest form of street publication, Marcus Wood writes from the conviction that slavery was, and still is, a dilemma for everyone in England, and seeks to explain why English society has constructed Atlantic slavery in the way it has.
Synopsis
In this fascinating and disturbing volume, Wood (English and American studies, U. of Sussex, UK) uncovers the inherent pornographic and fetishistic undertones of British views on slavery. Wood examines a variety of Victorian writings, including substantial works by well known authors, including Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Thomas Carlyle, and John Ruskin as well as works from popular culture, including plays, political pamphlets, travel books, government publications, songs, and poetry. In conclusion examples are given that demonstrate how the same attitudes towards slavery have persisted. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR